Friday, February 09, 2018

THE ROB PORTER DEBACLE: BLAME JAVANKA?

The Daily Beast reports that Corey Lewandowski was one of the people spreading stories about Rob Porter.

On Tuesday afternoon, senior White House officials reached out to Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) office with an urgent request. They needed the Utah Republican to put together a statement praising his former chief of staff and then-White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.

At issue was a story that was about to pop from the British tabloid, the Daily Mail, in which two of Porter’s ex-wives detailed the emotional and physical abuse they endured by him.

The White House officials told Hatch’s office that the story was the product of a “smear campaign” being orchestrated against Porter by his political enemies. Among those they pinpointed was former Trump campaign manager (and current outside adviser to the president) Corey Lewandowski, according to two sources familiar with the conversations. Multiple White House staffers told Hatch himself that Lewandowski “was digging into Rob’s previous marriages,” recalled one source, who said Porter himself was among the officials who fingered Lewandowski.

Why might Lewandowski want to create a scandal for an administration he's informally advising? An obvious answer is that, according to reports, he was once romantically involved with Hope Hicks, President Trump's communications director, who's now said to be involved with Porter.

But maybe he also resented the fact that Porter has a job in the White House, and he can't get one. A couple of days ago, Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman reported this about the president's desire to remake his staff:

[A] scenario being discussed is that Trump could fill the strategist role [formerly held by Steve Bannon] with Lewandowski and former deputy campaign manager Dave Bossie. Both have the aggressive personality Trump favors. But neither one has anything resembling West Wing experience, and both face stiff opposition from Ivanka and Jared Kushner. “They have blocked Corey at every turn. They kept him from going into [the] family box at the inaugural,” one former campaign staffer told me. “If Corey gets back in, they’re not long for the place.”

If Lewandowski could have been rehired by the White House,is it possible that he wouldn't have tried as hard as he did to bring down Porter?

Given the Hunger Games nature of this White House, maybe Lewandowski would have gone after Porter anyway. But a job might have placated him.

So if it weren't for the sexual and professional jealousy of a frustrated ex-White House employee who has anger management issues of his own, the White House never would have let Porter go, something it should have done a year ago. Lewandowski did the right thing for the wrong reasons, Ivanka and Jared are inept Machiavellis, and everyone in this White House is awful.